AT THE INN 151 



of the teapot. The ladies always seem to enjoy 

 the four o'clock muster. There was a wayside 

 inn which used to give us really delicious tea'' 

 after the day's fishing in the late autumn afternoon, 

 before we went back to the hotel. We praised 

 it warmly one day. " Yes," said the landlady, 

 " people often say how good it is ! It's the 

 quality of the water, though, that does it ! " 

 Honest, modest people they are, in the country. 



At one fishing inn, a railway line ran between 

 lawn and river, and this fact produced an 

 interesting daily occurrence, which could be 

 watched from an overlooking bedroom window. 

 The guard threw a daily paper out from his van, 

 and a water spaniel would regularly retrieve it, 

 and bring it indoors. Once the paper alighted 

 high up in a holly bush, and obstinately stuck 

 there ! It quite upset the spaniel. He worried 

 and worried, but could not tackle the problem. 

 After an interval of over three years, I re-visited 

 that hotel, and hoped that the good old custom 

 still continued. Alas! the old dog had "gone 

 west," and the paper now came by messenger. 

 It was a change from poetry to prose. 



We had a scare at one hotel. Long faces greeted 

 the announcement that one of the guests, a lady, 

 had, it was feared, developed measles. The 

 doctor had just been, and he would say, definitely, 

 on the morrow. The hotel was full and everybody 

 was miserable. Packing up was contemplated, 

 time-tables were studied. A brave attempt was 

 made to keep cheery. But measles are measles. 



